urge parliamentary scrutiny of the state within a state of the Khakis, especially the dreaded spy agency (DGFI). The interference of the Khakis into state politics will once again jeopardize institutionalization of elective democracy, good governance and secularism. The rogues fear social justice activists, critics, politicians and journalists too - Joy Manush!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Bangladesh Fire Raises Pressure to Improve Factory Safety

AP Photo: Labor groups say more than 500 people have died in Bangladesh factory fires since 2006. Above, garment workers in a factory outside of DhakaSYED
ZAIN AL-MAHMOODin
Dhaka,KATHY CHUin Hong Kong andTRIPTI LAHIRIin New Delhi

THE BANGLADESH
government, factory owners and foreign retailers are facing pressure from
workers to overhaul workplace safety in the aftermath of last month's deadly
factory fire.

More than 500 people have
died in Bangladesh
factory fires since 2006, according to estimates by labor groups. The
late-November fire in the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory that killed 112 people,
the country's worst industrial accident, was a tipping point.

Garment workers have clashed
with police weekly in Ashulia, the northern industrial suburb of Dhaka where
Tazreen is located, demanding compensation for victims' families and safer
working conditions. Pressure is mounting on big buyers such asWal-Mart StoresInc. and Hennes & MauritzAB to tighten systems for monitoring
factory safety in Bangladesh.

Fearing social unrest and
lost orders, Bangladesh's
government is promising action. The stakes are large. The country exported $19
billion in garments last year, second only to China, according to government
reports. A recent report by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimated that
the figure could double in less than a decade.

"The prime minister has
ordered us to make sure this never happens again," said Mikail Shiper, an
official in Bangladesh's
labor ministry. Authorities have begun to review the nation's 5,000 registered
garment factories and will rescind permits from those that fail safety
evaluations, Mr. Shiper said. The government also is looking to install more
fire hydrants in industrial areas, he said.

Skeptics have said
Bangladesh's niche as among the world's least-expensive place to make
clothing—the minimum wage for garment workers is less than $37 a month—is an
obstacle to progress. The country's economy in recent years has been propelled
by churning out low-cost garments for the West, which labor groups said has
come at the cost of worker safety.

As
foreign retailers slash prices to attract shoppers, Bangladeshi factories have
to produce for less. A Bangladeshi supplier said prices retailers pay for
clothes had fallen 3% in the past five years, while production costs had
increased 10%.

"It's
hard to continue to improve factory compliance and safety when there's
ever-increasing downward pressure on the prices that global retailers are
willing to pay," said Ifty Islam, managing partner at Asian Tiger Capital
Partners, a Dhaka-based asset-management company.

Pierre
Börjesson, the sustainability manager for social issues at fashion retailer
H&M, said his company does its own safety inspections in Bangladesh,
rather than rely on third parties, as many retailers do. H&M, the largest
buyer from Bangladesh by
volume, has conducted more than 500 inspections at about 200 Bangladesh
factories this year, he said.

"The
absolute root cause of fires in Bangladesh
factories is the electrical situation," Mr. Börjesson said. Fire-safety
authorities need to increase safety standards for electrical wiring, for new as
well as old structures, he said.

Labor
groups said factory owners, a number of whom sit in Parliament, have blocked
efforts to improve working conditions and have sought to ensure that a ban on
unionization in garment factories remains in place.

"When
we spoke up, we had our [nongovernmental organization] license revoked,"
said Kalpona Akter, executive director of the BangladeshCenter
for Worker Solidarity. She said the organization has applied to have its
license renewed.

Factory
owners this year resisted an order from the fire department to dismantle
unauthorized rooftop tin structures, according to Ashulia fire inspector Mahbub
Hossain. He said fire officials changed the order to allow such structures on
three-quarters of a roof, after owners complained they needed the structures
for workers' dining areas.

Manufacturers
said they improved workplace conditions in recent years, spurred by demands
from foreign buyers. "A minority of factories give us a bad name,"
said Shahriar Alam, a member of Parliament and the managing director of
Renaissance Group Ltd., a large Dhaka-based garment manufacturer.

Pressure
from retailers has helped improve some working conditions, including the near
eradication of child labor in the garment industry, workers' groups
acknowledged. But labor activists said about five new factories open each month
to meet rising demand, making it difficult for Western retailers to keep tabs
on where their clothes are coming from.

About
70% of Bangladeshi factories comply with the country's labor and safety
standards, said Belal Hossain, a senior official with Bangladesh's
labor directorate. "Compliance is going up," he said. "But the
rise in the number of compliant factories is still behind the curve when
matched against the volume of orders."

Retailers
often rely on third-party suppliers to get garments made. The suppliers are
supposed to ensure that items come only from factories that pass regular
inspections for safety and working conditions, carried out by global auditing
firms.

Wal-Mart
disputed that there aren't enough auditors but said it is looking for ways to
strengthen its system to avoid subcontractors using factories without the
retailer's authority.

"We
can put all kinds of controls in place, but if they don't tell us where they're
putting our order, then that is a problem" said Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin
Gardner. "The lack of transparency down the supply chain represents a
challenge not just for Wal-Mart, but for the industry overall."

Tazreen,
the site of last month's fire, supplied clothes to Wal-Mart and other companies
after failing audits. Wal-Mart said after the fire that suppliers did business
with the factory without authorization and that Wal-Mart has stopped using the
suppliers. Tuba Group, Tazreen's parent, said it wasn't aware that the factory
had been deauthorized.

The
fire is likely to push retailers to buy more of their goods directly from
factories, rather than through suppliers, and to conduct more of their own
audits, said Rubana Huq, managing director of Mohammadi Group, a Bangladeshi
garment manufacturer. "We are already experiencing retailers tightening
their audit processes through their local offices," she said.